As more and more COVID-19 vaccines find their way into more and more arms, there are reports of bad things happening to people after vaccination. As I’ve been predicting, antivaxxers are now weaponizing these reports and anecdotes before they have even been investigated in order to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines. They’re even blaming Hank Aaron’s death on vaccines.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate has published a report showing antivaxxers have been coordinating their COVID-19 messages. None of the messages being spread about COVID-19 vaccines are a surprise to anyone who’s been following the antivaccine movement.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that antivaccine groups got $850,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program under the CARES Act. How could this happen?
Recently, a post by Heidi Neckelmann, the wife of Miami obstetrician Dr. Gregory Michael describing his death from idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) 16 days after being vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine went viral. Unsurprisingly, in her grief she blamed the vaccine for her husband’s death from a rare autoimmune condition that destroys platelets and causes bleeding. Unfortunately, Dr. Michael’s tragic death underlines the difficulty distinguishing coincidence from causation when evaluating adverse events after vaccination.
Peter Doshi is at least borderline antivaccine and has been casting doubt on vaccine efficacy since 2009. Earlier this month, he posted a badly flawed “analysis” casting doubt on the efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. Why does The BMJ still employ him?
